View Poll Results: On average, how many tunes do you play a day
- Voters
- 109. You may not vote on this poll
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2 or less
28 25.69% -
3-5
41 37.61% -
6-10
22 20.18% -
11-20
10 9.17% -
20-30
3 2.75% -
More than 30
5 4.59%
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If I’m just practicing for no particular gig I probably work on a single tune for a few days. Even if it’s one I already “know.”
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02-06-2024 10:39 AM
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Most days, I only play my own songs.
I'm one of those loner assholes you sometimes hear about on the news. ;o)
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I’ll probably run through 5 or 6 jazz tunes a day, plus some pure improvisation. And then I try to learn something new. I don’t play jazz gigs but when I have a rock or country job I will review about 20 songs a day.
I play with several bands and also do some subbing and the occasional studio session.
I keep all the songs in Studio One on my computer so when I get a call for a gig the material is there, easy to start, pause, rewind etc.
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Varies, depending on what I'm preparing for.
Lately, I've been drilling top 50 jazz standards (from somebody's list on the Internet) and playing them in random keys. So maybe a dozen a day.
Today, though, I have two gigs to prepare for, one with 27 tunes on the setlist and the other with 14. So, 41 charts, a few of which are for songs I haven't heard yet, so I have to find recordings.
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Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Honestly getting the set list ahead of time is a small luxury.
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As a sideman I ask without shame. As a bandleader I appreciate someone who wants to prepare.
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Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Seems to me that doing it this way -- and not bothering them to send me the link -- may make it easier for them. As a sideman subbing in a band, I think you really want to avoid being a squeaky wheel, if you can possibly figure out how to play the music without bothering the leader. If, on the other hand, you're going to screw up the performance unless you ask the question, you're going to have to ask it. Best of luck knowing the difference.Last edited by rpjazzguitar; 02-06-2024 at 06:35 PM.
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Originally Posted by pamosmusic
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Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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Originally Posted by Rick5
Ted Dunbar's Bebop List article @ All About Jazz
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Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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Originally Posted by Bop Head
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Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Ive probably mentioned that in the context of the Dunbar list, because I kind of lifted the idea from there, but it’s not quite the same thing.
My bad.
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I would say 5-10 a day. I have a spreadsheet with all the tunes I know and a playlist of my favorite YouTube play alongs for them. Every time I play a tune I give a score between 1 and 10, and then I have a very crude algorithm set up that calls a random tune, with a slight bias towards those with the lowest scores, so theoretically I'm working on those tunes that I'm the worst at the most. Most important thing is just that I'm keeping my repertoire up.
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Originally Posted by BreckerFan
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This is a good topic for a thread! It's interesting to read the different reasons and routines that others have for playing tunes. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
I'm an amateur or casual player, a hobbyist I suppose, and I play perhaps 2-3 tunes most days. They tend to be mainly tunes I'm reviewing or working up to play or call at weekly or monthly jam sessions. As an example, for a few days before last night's jam session I reviewed "Dindi," "Sugar" and "You and the Night and the Music." "Dindi" was part of a solo guitar suite I worked up for Jobim's birthday last month, for which I arranged it in A. For the jam session, I reviewed it in Eb, which is the key in the common jam session books we use so others can join. The other two tunes, I was playing a lot last year but when they got stale I stopped calling them. Ironically, someone unexpectedly called "You and the Night..." at a session last week, which put it back on my radar but I need some playing time to get it back in shape. So the number of tunes I play per day goes like that; it's situational, it depends on the context.
On the other hand, some tunes are challenging rhythmically or the theme or comping pushes my current level of dexterity. If I have time I might try to work on those deficiencies systematically by focusing my daily playing time on those more demanding tunes. One of my chronic deficiencies is a sometimes clumsy anchored picking technique. However, instead of working to improve that, I recently stopped using a pick and returned to playing with my thumb for single lines and adding other fingers for chording as needed. Interestingly, at last night's session another guitarist commented that I had "changed my style."
But I think what matters most to me at the moment is being able to play the tunes that get called at jam sessions at least competently enough so I can join in or bring a new tune to a session. In that sense, I play tunes at home in the interest of later participating in a social setting around playing jazz out with others.
Many moons ago, when I was a work-a-day musician, I played far more tunes per day as part of a general practice routine that was oriented toward gigging and earning a living.
More recently, in addition to jam sessions, once or twice a year I might get invited to do a one-off show or sit in on someone's gig. When occasional shows or gigs are on the horizon I'll only play tunes to prepare for these more formal performance, and temporarily curtail the casual informal jam sessions. So for me overall, tunes that I play per day seem to mostly depend on a purpose for playing a tune at that time.
But of course, playing is also (and maybe even mostly) about fun and joy, and many tunes are just fun and joyful to play. Some days, I pick up a guitar and play one of those tunes with no purpose whatsoever.
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Originally Posted by pamosmusic
The real challenge is that for it to really work I need to have like 6 months plus of data. Ideally you've played through each tune multiple times. If I stick with it for like 5 years it'll be really useful.
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For gigs, I tend to play with the same group of guys, so I can get really well-prepared in advance. With a few exceptions, we agree on all of the tunes in advance. A week or so before the gig, I stop all other practicing and just focus on playing the gig each day. I then feel like I have played the gig half a dozen or more times by the time it rolls around.
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RIP Nick Gravenites
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